The aim of this short paper is to provide an update on our experiences with
using Mathematical Mark-up Language (MathML) and Scalable Vector
Graphics (SVG) within “Mathletics” – a suite of mathematics and statistics
objective question styles written within Perception’s QML language/Javascript.
We refer here to question style to stress that we author according to the
pedagogic and algebraic structure of a questions’ content; random
parameters are chosen at runtime and included within all elements of the
question and feedback, including the plain text source for MathML and SVG.
This results in each style having thousands, or even millions, of realisations
seen by the users. Much of what we have developed exists in template files
that contain functions called by any question style within the database; such
functions are therefore independent of any particular web-based system (we
user Perception), indeed, ordinary web pages. We reported on some of these
functions at the last CAA Conference (Baruah, Ellis, Gill and Greenhow 2005)
whilst basic concepts and terminology for MathML and SVG are introduced by
Ellis (2005). It should also be noted that the user’s choice of font colours &
sizes, and background colour, are all incorporated within the MathML and
SVG content. This means that equations and diagrams will be accessible to
those requiring larger/differently-coloured versions of the content’s default
options.